Among his choices, Mr Farage selected Lifeboat VC by former BBC Wales presenter Ian Skidmore, who lived in March for 10 years before he died last October.

The book tells the story of the brave and charismatic lifeboat coxswain Dick Evans, the only lifeboatman to hold two Royal National Lifeboat Institution gold medals, that institute’s equivalent of the Victoria Cross.

For more than 50 years Evans was associated with the lifeboat at Moelfre on the north coast of the Isle of Anglesey, one of Britain’s most dangerous stretches of water.

He won his gold medals in 1959 and 1966 for carrying out rescues in winds gusting up to 120 mph with waves 40 ft high. In one incident the lifeboat was washed for perilous seconds on to the deck of the endangered ship.

Celia Skidmore, of Elwyn Court, March, said: “I was delighted to read in the national press that Nigel Farage chose as one of his five books to take on holiday Lifeboat VC by my late husband Ian Skidmore.

“He greatly admired Evans for his bravery and his humanity.

“Farage has made a good choice. An exciting read about a wonderful man. I just hope if he’s going on a cruise he doesn’t encounter a great storm.”

Mr Farage was taking part in a Daily Telegraph article where the leaders of the four main political parties were asked to select their holiday reads.

The UKIP leader’s other choices were (perhaps unsurprisingly) The Trouble with Europe by Roger Bootle, Aisne 1914 by Paul Kendall, You’re the Doctor - You Decide by Graham Matthews and Too Close to Call by Jonathan Hill and Sarah Hogg.

Prime Minister David Cameron selected A Spy Among Friends by Ben MacIntyre, Coming up Trumps: A Memoir by Baroness Trumpington, The Trigger by Tim Butcher and The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell.

Labour leader Ed Miliband’s choices were The Silkworm by Robert Galbriath, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt and Ten Cities That Made An Empire by Tristram Hunt.

Deputy PM and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg went for The Cruel Victory by Paddy Ashdown, Pravda by Edward Docx, Ghostwritten by Isabel Wolff and An Officer and a Spy by Robert Harris.

Councillor James Palmer, leader of East Cambridgeshire District Council, has thrown his hat in the ring to become the new Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, with hopes to “improve infrastructure and provide high quality housing for all”.